There are Many Ways to Break a Man
by Titania Le Fey
Summary: Shortly after the Ruse, while Taylor is still on crutches, Snake is captured and admitted into a military asylum for treatment.
1. Flashbacks

Snake sat in the cold chair pushed up tight to an equally cold, metallic table. His fingers drummed incessantly. It'd been three days since his last cigarette and more since he'd had a hit of anything else. Withdraw had him tensed to the breaking point. It left him sweating in the frigid room. Waiting. He hated to wait.

The door handle clicked snapping Snake's good eye to the sound. The field of view was still something he wasn't completely comfortable and he shimmied in the chair to get a full view of the opening door to his left. They always set him up with the blind side to the door. It was one more thing to add to the edginess he was already feeling. A doctor came from the door. A military doctor Snake noted by the stripes on the shoulder of his lab coat. Anger flashed orange and hot behind the patch as Plissken intently watched the man and his briefcase approaching his table.

If his hate could manifest in reality a would have burned through the case and into the man's leg. The world and this doctor didn't know how lucky they were that Snake's reality wasn't real.

The top popped up on the case as the man took a seat across from Plissken. He didn't like not being able to see his face and the pace of his fingers intensified.

"They told me you were the best."

The doctor's voice was flat and almost mocking to Snake's ears as he closed the case. A manila folder had been produced and now sat on top of the worn leather case. Plissken's eye worked between the folder and the face trying to deduce what this person knew.

"What happened Lieutenant?"

Snake remained stoically silent but his gaze expressed everything a long string of words would have revealed in a far longer period of time. The hurt, pain, hatred, betrayal was there in plain view glaring from that one ice blue eye locked on the doctor across the table.

"They reported you were screaming a name last night and wouldn't go down for the night. How was the sedation?"

Snake didn't move and his expression turned flat as he blocked out the memories of being strapped to the bed forcibly and the needles driven into his veins as he struggled. It was like Hell.

"Who was this "Sophia" you were dreaming about?"

Snake felt his eyes and lips twitch as he fought to keep the agony buried away in the recesses of his soul. Images were rushing his fragile reality. Blood, gore, white hair smeared with blood in an orange haze, the flashes of explosions. Snake blinked away the thoughts with cold determination.

"It doesn't matter for the moment. All that matters right now is you Mr. Plissken."

Those words returned the raging hate that blotted out everything else in Snake's breaking mind.

"NO!" It wasn't a statement but a demand. In Snake's mind everything else mattered. The Ruse, the death and the fact Taylor was somewhere alone, still on crutches. The doctor was visibly unnerved by the intensity of his patient's voice but returned to noting down the behavior.

Plissken promptly lost interest and started scrutinizing the door. He wished he was outside that door running but the sedation always seemed to keep him from realizing any form of plan he hatched for escape. On the upside his eye pain didn't bother him. He was too drugged to notice it.

"… your experience during the Ruse."

Snake only caught the very end of what the doctor had been rambling about. With slow precision his eye returned to the man who was demanding his attention.

"What about it?" The burning was returning to Snake's insides. It had been his constant companion since he'd seen the pit and he found comfort in the uncomfortable internal heat.

"You aren't paying attention Lieutenant."

Plissken looked back at the door. He didn't want to listen especially whatever this military puppet had to tell him about the Ruse.

"Lieutenant. We are here to create a database and possibly find a way to aid those who have been similarly effected by the efforts in Leningrad."

Snake felt the tension in his body clench so tightly he could imagine his muscles tearing free from his bones. "I don't give a fuck about your database."

The doctor sighed. Plissken was watching the door. He wanted out.

"Mr. Plissken we have to talk about your problems before we can give you more freedom in the hospital."

"What problems?" Snake ripped his attention from the door to burn the doctor with a hatred filled gaze.

"Mr. Plissken you are not well."

"The name's Snake." Snake growled venomously.

"Your name is…"

Snake couldn't take anymore from this bastard.

"Shut the fuck up!"

The doctor held up a paper he had been reading from. "Please just read the name."

Snake glared at the page. "Shut up!" His voice was starting to rise and his fingers froze in place.

"Just the first name."

Snake reached out and took the paper.

"Very good. Now please read the name."

Snake wasn't about to do anything for the government ever again. Not even read his name. His eye came up from the paper and he crumpled it to a tight ball.

"Mr. Plissken."

"The name's Snake." Plissken whispered as he shredded the paper into confetti. He wanted the rest of them too. Plissken's eye dropped to the folder and stack under the doctor's hand.

"Was that necessary?"

Snake ignored him straining to read what was on the papers he was guarding so jealously. He couldn't quite make it out. Plissken leaned forward and the man shifted. Red tainted the crisp black and white type. That red blotch sent the internal burning to depths Snake had not thought possible.

"DISHONORABLY DISCHARGED"

Snake had seen the papers for his Honorable Discharge when he received his second purple heart. He'd thrown it away. The doctor's gaze was drawn down by the sheer intensity of Plissken's gaze. He missed Plissken getting to his feet. Snake wanted those papers and made a grab for them. They were hiding something from him. Snake knew it.

"I want my papers!"

The doctor shook his head and backed away.

"Give them to me." The next head shake ignited an explosion inside Plissken and his fingers clenched the cold metal table. One shove and it was overturned. Cuffs or not he was going to beat the hell out of this man and shove those papers down his throat.

"Guards!"

Snake jumped the over turned table with the grace of a wild cat. Grabbing for the collar he slammed the doctor back into the wall. Papers flurried down around the men. Snake couldn't get the blast furnace inside under control. His insides were hot and demanding he blow off some of the steam pressing his insides.

The first of the attendants to touch him got an elbow full to the face. They were coming up on his bad side. The damned cowards. Snake spun tossing the doctor aside. The need to fight was out of control. They grabbed him and he struggled. There was no telling how many made up the cacophony of shouts in the room.

"Sedatives"

Snake saw the tranquilizer gun and reality crashed out rebuilding itself from pieces of his thoughts. The finger was on the trigger. Plissken's eye went wide. Siberia, his internal survival mechanism was screaming at him. Cold, gun, prison, trapped, alone. Animal instinct rose and called his faculties to one purpose, escape!

Plissken brought his head back as hard as his tense muscles would allow. Pain flooded his mind as his skull cracked against something that didn't give. His vision faded to white haze and then cleared. The grip on his arms loosened and Snake slithered free.

"You're not killing me!"

The guard was stunned and Plissken flew at him in delirious rage.

"Where's Taylor!"

The guard was still stunned when he and Plissken slammed into the floor. The pistol skittered away across the metal floor. Snake had the man's neck and started cracking his head off the floor causing the room to ring.

"What'd you fucking Ruskies do with Taylor!"

Snake was out of control or completely in control if one took into account the alterations to reality. It wasn't the asylum but a POW camp years back. The reality and memory were no longer separated. Even the blood spreading on the smooth gray surface did little more then enforce the memory as reality.

"Where's Taylor?"

"He's having an episode!"

Hands were on him. Cold hands, so much like the Russians and the snow. Frenzy burned to an orange fog as he was pulled from the unconscious man. The needle was coming again and Plissken struggled frantically kicking and biting anyone who got within his reach.

"No!" Animalistic fear pounded through his body pushing his heart to a painful tempo that filled his ears. Four were holding him to the floor when the prick finally came to his shoulder. Plissken screamed in terror but suddenly he was free. He scrambled to his feet fighting the dizziness rising from within. Plissken felt tired already but he refused to give in.

That one blue eye roved over the white uniforms and some semblance of clarity returned. Snake swayed trying to focus on the man pointing at him. His words were muffled by the pumping blood but action followed. There was another needle coming for him.

Plissken focused all his remaining attention on them. He wouldn't be stuck again! Vision doubled up but The Snake was already locked on his target for the strike. He had the real one in his sights. Plissken lashed out as soon as the real one was in range. The punch didn't hit as intended or with the strength he had wanted but it landed solidly enough. Snake stumbled back as did his adversary. He kept his footing and fought to clear his senses. They were surrounding him. His senses were giving out but the fight was still there. He wouldn't give up. Plissken never did.


	2. Phobias

Snake woke groggy and disoriented. Things seemed lost in a haze just beyond his grasp. A breath and then another, relaxing the stress and pain away so he could think clearly. His surroundings hadn't yet begun to filter in from the outside leaving Plissken blissfully unaware. The fog was clearing. The throb of bright fiery heat still pounded in his brain but he had become used to it. That was the only thing that reminded him this was really his body and not a dream. The pain had not filtered into them yet at least not in its true form burning under the patch.

With the clearer thought awareness came. It was cold in the room. Snake could feel it on his face and raising goose bumps on his bare arms. Some areas seemed colder. Plissken's brow furrowed in deep thought before his eye opened. Above him was a white ceiling that seemed distorted and too far away. Drugs. His mind had a vague remembrance of drugs. Needles! Snake's whole body clenched and attempted to spring him to his feet.

Nothing happened. Something held him in place. Even his head was rendered immobile. The cold strips demanded his attention. Struggling Snake's fingers curled around to his wrist. There was a cool strip there and pressure when he attempted to move his arm. Restraints.

Memories flooded his senses; capture, fighting, the papers. The PAPERS! Dishonorably discharged. Cold fury came with the recollections. Snake relaxed and then flexed every muscle in his body in an attempt to get lose. He wanted free. The synthetic bands dug in, deep, lacerating his wrists as he pulled with everything he had.

Plissken relaxed and thought out his position. Blood trickled over the back of his hand sending him into another frenzy. Snake tried to slip them this time only to become aware of a second set of straps just above the elbow. Plissken sighed heavily to relieve some of the frustration. He let his thoughts turn inside to pure concentration. He knew he could get free. His eye slid closed as he tried to imagine the position of his body and the restraints. He was looking for a weakness.

There was one vulnerability, the synthetic. Enough pressure over a given time and it would stretch. Plissken immediately went to work wrestling with the bands. All of his concentration came to a pinpoint of focus revolving around the task of getting free. He was not so lost that the click of a turning door handle would pass his notice.

Snake relaxed, listening and trying to turn his eye and head far enough to see who or what had entered the room with him. He could hear breathing, 2 people and a cart. The wheels squeaked like a jackhammer in Plissken's eye. Lights came on and reflexively his eye shut trying to blink away the brightness.

A face appeared surrounded by the white and colored rainbow halo. The expression was blank giving none of the secrets beyond his field of view. Glass on metal, a clink, and Plissken forced his head to turn beneath the band. Fibers cut into his head but he ignored it. Plissken could see the nurse next to the person over the bed. The cart lay behind her and obscured

"20 cc" Her voice was soft but Plissken heard only horror. More struggling and blood trickled on his head. His eye blinked and watered against the halogen above him. Clarity and the inverted bottle cleared. Needles. Panic filled Snake as his body went into frantic motion. No more needles. No more drugs. He couldn't take it. He wouldn't take it.

Plissken burst into a scream of terror and anger. The sound filled the room and his ears pushing the burn of his eye to the brightness of the room's light.

"Gag him."

Plissken clenched his teeth closed when the nurse appeared on the other side with a strip of something. She shoved it against his face. Fabric crushed his lips to his teeth. Pain raged through his body from the scuffle with the slick, razor sharp straps. The needle caught the light at the edge of Plissken's field of view. The scream came through despite his best effort to hold it. His mouth opened and the gag slammed full to the back of his mouth drowning the scream in a choking gag.

Plissken tried to spit it out but it was pulled back tight against the bed, just another strap locking him in place. Frightened, Snake lashed out like a wild animal caught in a death trap. He couldn't see much difference between himself and the analogy. A warm hand came to his neck. Instantly, Plissken snapped his head around to push it away.

The needle filled his vision, filled to capacity with a pale, clear, blue liquid.

"Hold his head."

More hands touched him, reinvigorating his desire to get lose. No matter how much he struggled nothing gave way. Then the prick came to the neck. Snake cried out from fear. He had no idea what they had been sticking him with. For days he'd been attacked by them and their needles. While he slept, when he ate, all the time. Another hit his hand but this time the scream didn't come. He couldn't find the energy. Everything was slow and quiet. They left and the lights went out plunging Plissken into the dark alone with his fear and pain.


End file.
